The real records, the maps and the explanations behind Two Stills and a Sheriff’s Sale.
The film uses authentic record images, faithful crops and modern explanatory graphics. This guide makes it easy to tell them apart and open the surviving pages.
Tax-book photographs document William in 1789, 1793, 1795, 1799 and 1805. The 1805 page expressly lists 140 acres, four horses, five cows and two stills. These are assessment entries, not an audited balance sheet.
William’s row is separate from James Quigley’s row above and Nicholas Redsecker’s mountain acreage below. Changing tax acreages are not automatically a single parcel’s growth history.
Examinations taken 30 July 1807 before justice William Lewis concern the alleged assault of 24 July at Frankenberger’s house in Allen Township. Together the complaints name seven Millers.
These are William’s sworn accusations. The photographed indictment and acquittal concern Big John and Tobias Miller specifically.
Martin Herman and Philip Weaver entered recognizances on 11 August 1807. Andrew Quigley is named in the indictment’s witness list. The later endorsement says the defendants were found not guilty, with county costs.
The witness list does not reproduce testimony. The verdict itself is undated; the January 1808 plea notation is a separate event.
Multiple creditor branches survive in papers from 1809–1811. The Miller writ, dated 10 November 1810, names Jacob as Christopher Miller’s administrator and Andrew as William’s executor.
Its principal is £103 16s 3d, with a separate $75.75 damages award for detention of the debt. The original debt source and any connection to the assault remain unestablished.
The sheriff deed records the 9 August 1811 auction to Jacob Steigleman for $4,200. It describes 180 acres in East Pennsborough, about 100 cleared, with a house and barn. The deed was acknowledged 11 January 1812.
Earlier “not sold” returns describe failed attempts before this completed sale. The image expressly records “four thousand two hundred dollars.”
A 1854 deed recites Andrew’s separate 1 April 1812 purchase from Peter Drear and wife in North Middleton. Another record describes a 25 acre North Mountain woodland sale to Andrew in 1819 and a deed in 1820.
William’s 180 acre East Pennsborough farm, Andrew’s North Middleton purchase and the woodland are separate property episodes. No distribution account proves the 1812 purchase was funded by William’s estate.
The 1858 H. F. Bridgens county map is Pennsylvania State Archives MG 11, Map 75. Nine PDF scan sections are preserved unchanged; the large viewing image is a visible assembly. C-9-125 is a certified copy of a 23 July 1808 neighboring survey.
The map is later orientation. The survey says “James Quigley & the heirs of Wm Quigley” as adjoining landowners; the plotted tract is not established as William’s own farm.
The film carries forward earlier research for Anne’s 1803 death, William’s 1803 Adams vendue purchases, his reported 1807 marriage, the 15 May 1808 will and reported 4 June 1808 death in East Pennsborough. Will locator: Cumberland Will Book G, pp. 332–333, with reported 6 August 1808 probate/recording.
Earlier notice research records an unnamed escaped enslaved boy aged 16 in 1806 and a man named Spencer associated with William in 1807. Those men are not automatically the same person or the man in the will. This production did not recover new original newspaper clips or a full will image.
Lynn Ann Catanese’s Guide to Records of the Court of Common Pleas, Chester County, Pennsylvania, 1681–1900 (1987) explains the Pennsylvania execution process. Its introduction says the descriptions generally apply across Pennsylvania counties. William’s particular facts still come from his own papers.
Useful printed pages: 23–24, seven-year rents/profits test; 71–73, inquisition and execution forms; 114–115, deed poll and execution; 117, inquisition; 119, recognizance; 121, venditioni exponas.
Open the official court-records guide ↗H. F. Bridgens, Map of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, 1858. Pennsylvania State Archives, MG 11, Map 75. Official map and original scan sections. Historical county-record photographs were supplied by E = MC³ and preserved with their full-resolution viewing copies. C-9-125 is a preserved Pennsylvania State Archives survey copy.
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